Ritual is so important. It does so many things for the human brain,
and to our “souls”, and to our energy.
This is a topic we wrote about to quite an extent in our book, EsotericMysticism. So it’s hard to sum up the
importance of ritual into one blog post, and it’s hard to go into depth about
it, too.
But basically, I adore ritual. I try to go to as many as I can (to the point
that I’ve experienced bad ritual burn-out on more than one occasion.) But I just love rituals. All of them!
(Well, I take that back. I have a
hard time connecting to non-denominational Christian church services, but I’d
really hardly call those ritual.)
By engaging in repetitive ritual,
we change our energy. The energy of that
ritual literally becomes of part of who you are. Ritual helps us to engage timeless archetypes
and energies. When we engage these
things, it fundamentally changes who you are.
And I mean this in the most literal sense. Certain types of ritual invoke certain
changes, and some of these can be quite powerful (especially those that
initiate a sense of permanence within an impermanent Universe.) (Which is basically what the book is about…!)
Creating new rituals helps you to
explore the Cosmos. It flexes your creative
muscles and helps you engage your world in new ways. It’s fun and creative, allowing you to
explore new depths and new heights. New
rituals can be opening and expanding in a very profound way!
Our brains respond to rituals. You can literally observe our brains reacting
to ritual – to meditation, prayer, drumming, chanting, contemplation. Parts of our brains light up when we are in
altered states, particularly religious or spiritual settings. They help us to connect to one another when
shared in a group. They help us to
connect to the Divine. They help us to
connect to ourselves and help us to learn about ourselves and engage in Gnosis,
knowing ourselves!
Ritual helps us connect to
community. It means we interact with one
another on a regular basis. When done
correctly, good ritual can build intimacy.
It helps break down barriers, both within ourselves and how we engage
others. It gives us a chance to
celebrate, to have fun! We gather to
create beautiful altars, to chant, to sing, to create magic, to engage in
witchcraft. Ritual is a time for both
celebration and work.
Most of all, ritual isn’t just
about us, but about Them. Ritual is a
fundamental way for us to honor the Gods and the Divine. It is a way for us to honor them. While ritual can be used for work only (a
working circle for magic and witchcraft) it can be a way to spend time with
your beloved Gods, ancestors, and spirits.
Within ritual, every act, every moment, every word, every gesture has
the potential to be done in honor of the most deserving Divine. And in addition to honoring Them, when we
honor Them, when we open ourselves up to Them, that loops us back to my first point. At these moments we are fundamentally,
forever and fully changed. Ritual opens
us up to engage with energies, and once we make contact with those energies, we
have the potential to be changed at our very core.
Regular and consistent ritual is so
important to living a full religious, spiritual, and mystical life. It changes you, it changes the world, it
changes the Universe, it changes the Cosmos.
And few things come close to the magnitude of this type of power, power
we have access to as soon as well will it, open ourselves up to it, and
engage.
